Six Sigma Education Increases Operating Efficiency

These are the fundamentals for success in today’s market. Six Sigma Certification from the University of Michigan, College of Engineering provides the tools needed to achieve sustained, measurable improvement in a wide variety of workplaces.

Why Six Sigma?

It's no longer enough to manage your business using yesterday's concepts and practices. Companies need effective tools to define measure, analyze, improve, and control. It is vitally important for an entire organization-from top-level management to workers on the line-to be committed to sustained improvement.

Six Sigma provides the methods and tools your employees need to meet the challenges of today's economy. More than a methodology for quality improvement, it is a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success with the focus on the customer, data, and business processes. Using Six Sigma, you can make measurable positive changes that will help your bottom line.

Six Sigma can be applied in manufacturing settings to improve quality, cost, and delivery.  In transactional and service settings, it can reduce variation and improve process flow. Typical outcomes can include better customer satisfaction scores and decreased internal processing time and service costs. In healthcare, Six Sigma can maximize continuous improvement by applying the fundamental elements of quality management, problem solving, and data analysis.

Why University of Michigan?

Courses are taught by internationally respected U-M faculty, research scientists, and industry subject experts with first-hand knowledge of cutting-edge Six Sigma applications. More than 10,000 certified students have learned how to apply Six Sigma tools to make effective, measureable improvements in their workplaces.

The value of this Six Sigma training is demonstrated by the success of projects that are part of the certification process. A common observation made by students after completing their Six Sigma project is "I know it made a significant change for our plant."

InterPro at the University of Michigan offers certification in each of the following programs: Black Belt in Manufacturing, Transactional, and Design for Six Sigma and Green Belt in Manufacturing, Transactional, Design for Six Sigma, and Healthcare.

Programs are available online with streaming video and direct email support for effective anytime/anywhere learning or on campus for a more traditional classroom experience. They also can  be customized and presented at your facility.

The Value of Robust Case Studies

As taught at the University of Michigan through InterPro, these Six Sigma certifications are primarily project-focused. Six Sigma utilizes a wide array of tools and techniques, some of which participants may have seen or used to some extent in their own work environment. The use of many real-world case studies demonstrates how the Six Sigma process works in different settings and allows students to become more comfortable integrating tools and problems.

These case studies are drawn from a growing collection of hundreds of Six Sigma student projects and also from the professors' experiences. They include successful applications of the Six Sigma problem-solving  process in manufacturing, non-manufacturing, and healthcare environments.

Real Situations - Real Solutions

Examples of real project case studies that increased efficiency to yield measurable improvements and impact the bottom line completed by recent Six Sigma Black Belts follow. To read the full case studies, visit http://interpro.engin.umich.edu/SixSigma.htm.

Managing Hospital Costs in an Era of Uncertain Reimbursement - A Six Sigma Approach Case Study

A hospital struggles with the cost of providing healthcare to Medicare patients in an economic environment where payments may no longer cover the cost for services rendered. Interventions that reduced the length of patient stay resulted in true, sustainable cost savings.

Operating Rooms Efficiency Case Study

A large healthcare provider commissioned a Six Sigma study to eliminate the waste in their process and improve the processing rate (throughput) of the operating rooms. The project team examined the process, identified the key performance variables related to this output, and developed fact-based recommendations.

Decreasing Food Cost in Restaurants by Consistently Delivering to Specifications - A Case Study

Controlling food cost is essential to a restaurant's profitability. This Six Sigma case study considers how control of the cost of food purchased, the amount of food spoiled, theft, the amount of food served, and portion control can impact the bottom line.

Maintenance Cost Reduction Case Study

With rising fuel costs and a slow freight cycle, the student team was challenged to reduce a trucking company's costs in parts and labor expenses as a percentage of revenue. To gain an immediate impact, the team analyzed labor costs and engaged the complex problems behind the tractor fleet's parts consumption.

Oil Fill Level Project: Solving Problems with Labor and Maintenance Costs

This Six Sigma case study utilizes the DMAIC process (a robust structure for problem-solving that follows the steps to define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) and a cross-section of both qualitative and quantitative tools to investigate the most effective means to eliminate the hard cost associated with oil level variation reported by automotive assembly plants and dealerships. The study identified a design flaw within the oil delivery circuit that provided an internal leak path as the primary issue responsible for the variation and provided a solution to the problem.

Paint Thickness Reduction Case Study

This Black Belt Six Sigma project uses the DMAIC method as a means to reduce a company's use of paint by up to 30% for an annual cost savings of $60,000.

For more information about Six Sigma programs offered by the University of Michigan, College of Engineering visit http://interpro.engin.umich.edu/SixSigma.htm.